British Antarctic team expected home

Members of the British Army Antarctic Expedition - including Sgt Steve Ayres, 29, from the Eastbourne area of Darlington - were today arriving home in Britain after three months exploring the frozen continent.

Members of the British Army Antarctic Expedition - including Sgt Steve Ayres, 29, from the Eastbourne area of Darlington - were today arriving home in Britain after three months exploring the frozen continent.

The team was due to touch down at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire at 7.15am from the Falkland Islands at the end of an adventure marked by achievement but also frostbite, broken bones and near-death.

The official Army expedition, whose patron is the Prince of Wales, sailed to the Antarctic Peninsula from the Falklands in November.

During their time on the ice, a team of ski-mountaineers scaled two summits, Mt Hoegh and Mt Banck, believed to be for the first time.

The expedition was not without incident. 23-year-old Sarah Piesse, a second lieutenant with the Royal Engineers, broke her thumb when she fell during a mountain climb near Port Lockroy, on the peninsula.

In the last week of the expedition, on Elephant Island, four members of the crew were shipwrecked in a blizzard when their inflatable supply dinghy overturned.

The team was rescued next day by the expedition's Southampton-registered yacht, the John Laing.